Chiaramonte

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Chiaramonte coat of arms

The Chiaramonte were one of the most important noble families in Sicily in the Middle Ages .

The family comes from Clermont ( Picardy ) in France and came to Sicily with the Normans in 1060 to conquer the island ( Norman Conquest of Southern Italy ).

With the expulsion of the Anjou after the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 by the Staufer heirs of Aragon , two power blocs formed in Sicily. The Latins supported by King Louis I of Naples from the House of Anjou were led by the Chiaramonte and Palizzi families, while the recently immigrated families Alagona, from Alagón (Saragossa) , Moncada (from Catalonia), Ventimiglia (from Liguria), the Staufer cousins Lancia and Peralta supported the claims of the Aragonese Crown . These battles between the noble families led to the construction of numerous heavily fortified castles all over Sicily in the 14th century.

The important time of the family began with the donation of the County of Modica by the Aragonese King Frederick III. on the day of his coronation in 1296. After the death of King Friedrich III. was Manfred III. Chiaramonte one of the four vicars who ruled Sicily on behalf of Frederick's daughter Maria , who was still underage . However, he aspired to the royal dignity himself.

A Gothic Chiarmonte house in the old town of Syracuse has been preserved from the 13th century . In the 14th century, the family built important palaces in Sicily, whose peculiar Gothic designs have been given the name Chiaramont style .

The story of the Chiaramonte family ended on June 1, 1392, when Martin I of Sicily , who married Maria in 1389, Andrea Chiaramonte , the last member of the family, had himself executed in Piazza Marina in front of the Palazzo Chiaramonte in Palermo for having himself executed had opposed his claim to the title of king of Sicily.

Monuments of the Chiaramonte family

The following castles and palaces go back to the House of Chiaramonte:

  • Castello in Modica

  • Castello Mussomeli , built in 1370 by Manfredi III. Chiaramonte

  • Castello Montechiaro near Palma di Montechiaro

  • Castello di Alcamo (built by Enrico and Federico Chiaramonte in 1350)

  • Castello di Caccamo

  • View from the Castello di Naro

  • Palazzo Chiaramonte in Palermo

  • Palazzo Chiaramonte in Enna

  • Castello Chiaramonte in Favara

literature

  • Patrizia Sardina, Palermo ei Chiaromonte: splendore e tramonto di una signoria. Potere nobiliare, ceti dirigenti e società tra XIV e XV secolo . Salvatore Sciascia Editore, Caltanissetta - Roma 2003 (Medioevo Mediterraneo 1) ISBN 88-8241-163-X
  • Moses I. Finley , Denis Mack Smith, Christopher Duggan: History of Sicily and the Sicilians . 3. Edition. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54130-5
  • Brigit Carnabuci: Sicily. Greek temples, Roman villas, Norman cathedrals and baroque cities in the center of the Mediterranean (=  DuMont art travel guide ). 6th, updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7701-4385-6 .

Web links

Commons : House of Chiaramonte  - collection of images, videos and audio files